Waiters

[minioncookies]

Have you ever been to a restraunt only to be served with a crappy waiter..?

Now usually i am not one to complain about waiters.. I usually am very leanant towards a waiter because they do have so many tables to tend to and such.. and plus if it get's really busy of course you will experience delays.. just like traffic.. But last night our waiter was one of the worst waiters i have ever experienced......

It all started when we decided to go out to get some chow.... Well we got to ihop.. and saw a waiter we enjoyed the last time and of course he seated us.. and all was good.. sat us down and told us our waiter would be right with us...... Waiter walked up and took our drinks... Was pretty quick about getting our drinks back... She took our order about 20-30 minutes later and all was good... It wasn't a busy night and she only had about 3 tables...Which we thought was pretty cool .. Anyways.. as the night went on.. the waiter seemed to dwendle in her service.. she stopped refilling our cups at one point..which i belive she only did once the whole night... didn't come back to the table to check on how we were doing but once. which made the whole family quiet irritated as  she only seemed to start tending to one certain table more than any other table in the restraunt.. Friends maybe.. But  Shouldn't keep you from doing your job you know? ... and not to mention she failed to clean off the table as we were eating.. We had to ask another waiter for a refill because ours failed to refill our drinks I guess she decided to take a vacation to the other table as that's where she was the majority of the evening we were there..... So we had about 4 peoples and about 8 cups and 6  to 7 plates as we finished... We got rather irritated and asked our waiter if she could clean off the table ... Which i guess that made her mad because she brung us the check pretty quickly and the card back rather quicly... which is the quickest i seen her move all night..... Needles to say the only tip she got was left on a napkin that read. Learn to do your job.. ... What would you have done in this situation? Have you experienced a similar situation?

[Nancy5]

Once we went to Denny's for lunch.  Our waiter came to us immediatly and took our drink order.  Soon he came and got our food order.  In a reasonable amount of time he brought our lunch.  Everything was going good, but went downhill quickly.  We wanted a refill on our drinks but he was no where to be found.  We waited and waited and finally asked another waiter for refills.  The restaurant was pretty empty so we knew he wasn't busy.  Now we sat and sat and sat waiting for the check.  After about 30 minutes of waiting my husband stood up to find a manager and when standing up saw our waiter outside smoking, talking, and hugging his girlfriend.  We finally got someone to go outside and ask him for our check so we could leave.  I think that was the only time my husband refused to leave any tip.

[Tresbn00]

I paid for most of my college degree working as a waiter and depended heavily on tips for paying my mortgage and tuition. It sounds like you were the victim of poor service and your wait (ress) really didn't need the money that bad. Given my back ground I would have tipped ten percent and wouldn't have left a letter. If I felt strongly about it and the service was bad (worse than what you had been exposed to) I would have asked to speak to the manager so that the poor service could be corrected in a more proactive manner.  I don't think that a note would suddenly cause her to change her serving skills. Waiting tables made me a much more patient person in life because you tend to run into quite a few poorly mannered patrons.

[camellia0]

I've had too many servers as such. In cases like that, you need to speak to a manager. It's sad that people can work at places like that and not care about customer service. Hopefully you filled out the card to complain.

[dbsaus1]

Unfortunately yes. We went to a local restaurant and were seat and that was it for the next 30 minutes while the waitress chatted with the couple at the next table!!! My husband got up and mentioned to the hostess that we had been waiting for some time and she took our drink orders. Needless to say we did not go back for a while.

[6265AT99]

Well, did you ever think perhaps that she was "new" at her job?  I'm not trying to make excuses for her, but, sometimes a new employee won't do the job expected right off the bat.  You indicated she only had about 3 tables to wait on, so that's why I'm thinking she may have been new.  Believe me, I don't enjoy poor service either but, sometimes you have to give the benefit of the doubt to someone.

[alice44]

It is always nice to have a happy waiter or waitress.  I experience unhappy ones a lot - but I also understand they are under pressure to please everyone and that can't be easy.  I am so grateful that I don't have to do their job.

[linderlizzie]

I think we've all had an experience like that. The waitress may have had a bad day or maybe she hates her job. She may be a single mom just trying to make ends meet. Maybe one of her customers had just treated her terribly and complained about how she does her job. Whatever.

If your waiter/waitress does a great job, it makes for a great experience and you reward him/her accordingly. If he/she does a bad job, you just tip the minimum.

Walk a mile in her shoes. It's not very fun being a waitress. It's a really hard job, whether you do it well or poorly. And they make so little money at that job, they depend on their tips.

I think the note you left was unkind, but I do understand your frustration. However, I don't think it will motivate her to do better. It will probably give her more of a bad attitude.

It probably would have made her day if you had thanked her for her service and left a nice tip. Maybe she'd do better for you next time if you went the extra mile to be nice. 

 

[sherryinutah]

Some people are not "built" to do that type of work.  They're usually just desperate for a job.  I have met gifted waiters and waitresses and they are a pleasure to interact with.  They have a good memory and know how to lift people emotionally.

I tried to be a waitress when I was younger.  That was before I became aware that I'm an introvert so that job opportunity wasn't a good fit for me.  I enjoyed wiping down tables and doing the cleaning part; however, I wanted to avoid people and their attitudes.

 

[ricdsm]

I think I would have asked to speak to the manager. 

[aharr1]

yes i have been i think everyone has been, it really is horrible because we don't have that kind of money to go out to eat all the time so when we do get to we would like to have a nice time.

[michele2042]

We've all had poor service at one point or another while dining out.   I try to keep an open mind that perhaps the server is having a bad day, maybe the last customer was really rude, etc.   But that doesn't necessarily sound like what happened to you.   One time we had a similar experience with the server not being busy and basically ignoring us.   Instead of reporting it to the manager we left a minimal tip (5% rather than our usual 15 -20%).   As we exited I told the server, quietly, that I was sorry for not leaving a better tip but I felt her service was below par and I hoped whatever was bothering her would not stop her from giving better service to the rest of the diners.   

We usually go into a restaurant and immediately start with a 20-25% tip in mind, as the night progresses we deduct from that % based on the server's service.    I've worked as a server and so has my son, I know how difficult it can be and understand they have to pay taxes and sometimes things will happen that affects their mood.  I tend to want to let them know personally why I've left a less than good tip.